Re: 3 Missing in Iraq

Date: January 26, 2004

"2 soldiers in helicopter crash missing

January 26, 2004


TIKRIT, Iraq -- A U.S. helicopter crashed in the Tigris River while searching for a missing soldier Sunday, and the aircraft's two crew members were missing, the military said.

It did not say what caused the crash of the Kiowa Warrior helicopter, attached to the 101st Airborne Division.

Also, U.S. troops arrested nearly 50 people Sunday in raids in the Sunni Triangle after attacks killed six GIs. AP"

and

"US copter hit cable, pilots missing

Mosul, Iraq, Jan 26 - Two US soldiers went missing Sunday after their rescue helicopter crashed into the Tigris river in northern Iraq following a patrol boat accident that left another US serviceman missing and killed two Iraqi policemen and a civilia n.

The OH-58 Kiowa warrior helicopter splashed down in the river near the city of Mosul during a mission to find another US soldier lost in the waters when a patrol boat capsized, the US military said.

"A search for the two pilots is underway," an American spokesman said, adding that a US soldier from the patrol boat was also still missing.

"The helicopter was on a search and rescue mission for a US soldier reported missing when the boat he was in capsized at approximately 5:15 PM (1415 GMT)," he said.

The spokesman said the boat contained four other US soldiers and members of the Iraqi police force patrolling the waters around Mosul.

"The other soldiers are reported safe, two Iraqi police and one Iraqi translator are reported dead," he said.

The boat was on a routine patrol, said Iraqi civil defence officer Basman Ahmad Towfic, adding that due to higher-than-usual water levels, the boat slammed into cables strung between one of the river banks and a small island.

A senior police official in Mosul said the 101st airborne division helicopter had crashed after flying at low altitude into the wires.

The cables are used by Iraqi paramilitary civil defence soldiers for pulling unpowered vessels across the broad river, which runs from Turkey through Syria, before traversing Iraq to the Persian Gulf.

©Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network "